Conservative Evangelical Pastor Rick Warren tweeted yesterday that the unregistered gun his son used to kill himself was purchased from an online buyer:
LOS ANGELES — The gun Rick Warren’s son used to kill himself was unregistered and purchased on the Internet, the pastor tweeted Thursday afternoon.
Warren’s tweet read:
“Someone on the internet sold Matthew an unregistered gun. I pray he seeks God’s forgiveness. I forgive him.#MATTHEW 6:15”
California law requires that gun dealers keep a register of all guns sold in the state. Federal law also requires a background check before a firearm may be purchased from a gun dealer. One of the things the background check looks for is whether a person has ever been committed to a mental health institution. More details here:
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is trying to find the seller but it won’t be easy. The gun’s serial number was scratched off, making it impossible to trace, spokesman Jim Amormino said.
“We can’t tell if it’s registered or not because the serial number is scratched off,” he said. “At one point in time, it may have been, but it’s going to be impossible to find out.”
The Warren family has disclosed that Matthew Warren suffered from mental illness, for much of his life, including debilitating episodes of depression and thoughts of suicide. I don’t know if Matthew had spent time in a psychiatric facility, but the fact that he purchased his gun online rather than at a gun dealer where he would be required to submit himself to a background check suggests he may have believed he would have been disqualified from purchasing a firearm because of the background check requirement.
Unfortunately online sales of firearms are not well regulated, as the report released by Mayors Against Illegal Guns in 2011 demonstrated. Though online gun dealers are supposed to comply with federal laws regarding background checks, many do not, and “private sellers” are exempt from the federal background check requirement.
Federally licensed firearms dealers are required to conduct background checks on all buyers, whether in person or online. But unlicensed “private sellers” are exempt from conducting background checks. This so-called “gun show loophole,” along with the Internet, now accounts for about 40 percent of U.S. sales, fueling what law enforcement officials say is a huge black market for illegal guns.
One online gun dealer was linked to both the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre that killed 32 people and the mass mass shooting at Northern Illinois University in 2008 that left five dead. Guns purchased illegally online also have been linked to police shootings, gun trafficking and sales to minors. […]
In the New York investigation, a team of 15 undercover agents surfed the Internet over a period of 18 days to capture audio and video recordings of online gun sellers blatantly skirting the law that bars the sale of firearms to felons, the mentally ill, domestic abusers and other prohibited buyers. The investigators examined 125 private sellers in 14 states who advertised on 10 different websites. They found more than 25,000 guns for sale on those sites alone.
Investigators found that 62% of the private gun sellers they contacted (77 out of 125) indicated they would sell guns to people who could probably not pass a background check. It appears that Matthew Warren was able to obtain a firearm online without the knowledge of his family or legal authorities. Meanwhile, the NRA and other pro-gun groups such as the Gun Owners of America continue to resist a more comprehensive systems of universal background checks and the elimination of the private seller loophole.
In a tense exchange with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America said Wednesday his organization would seek to oust Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) from office.
“He ought to be held politically accountable and they way to do it is in a primary,” Pratt explained.
Though the Republican senator has an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association, his support for closing the so-called gun show loophole indicated he didn’t really support the Second Amendment, according to Pratt.
All because, I suppose, they believe the unfettered access to guns is a God-given right that trumps all other rights, including the right to life. To which I reply from the scriptures: “Jesus wept.”